Reforming the prisons

SIR; The Nigerian Prison Act 1972, spells out the goals and orientation of the Nigerian Prisons Service. They are charged with taking custody of those legally detained, identifying causes of their behaviour and retraining them to become useful citizens in the society. Prisons are essentially correctional and reformatory; they are not institutions for the dehumanisation of the confined.

Also, a prison is not expected to be exactly a bed of roses as the inmates are there for penal purposes; neither is it supposed to be a bed of thorns and thistles meant to snuff life out of the inmates. For the 49,000 inmates in various Nigerian prisons, (29,000 of whom are awaiting trial, and the 856 on death row), hell cannot be worse.

The sanitary situation is not only repulsive but frighteningly demeaning and exposes the inmates to health hazards as inmates are forced to excrete in buckets and stay with their excreta for days. Feeding is a luxury, bathing a rarity, recreation zilch, reformation non-existent and privacy a privilege. Hence, most inmates leave the reformatory frail, fragile and with one debilitating disease or the other.

A terrible practice in Nigeria prison system is that our prisons cohabit those whose trials are still in progress and those whose trials have been decided, as a prison is for those whose judicial fate has been decided; in other words those who have been convicted while a jail is a transitional facility for those undergoing legal proceedings i.e. those awaiting judgment on their trial.

Of the 227 prisons in the country, four out of five were built before 1950. The infrastructure is old and decrepit. Buildings used as workshops are inadequate and some prisons non-existent.

A report by Human Rights Practice Commission for prisoner’s dignity, estimated that at least one inmate dies per day in the Kirikiri prison in Lagos alone. Dead inmates are promptly buried in graves on the compound usually without their families being notified. It is sad that claims like these are not investigated.

The government should please look into the present state of our prison system. Obviously, more prison cells should be built. The private sector can make a change to the system through contributions for medical checkups of inmates on a regular basis, feeding programmes and even jobs for those who have served their terms and are back in the society. Families should also endeavour not to neglect their wards in prison but check on them regularly because some prisoners have testimonies of their wards not coming to visit even after several years in prison even with such families knowing where they are; others have regretted their actions and vowed to change ways because of the pains they see in their loved ones eyes each time they are allowed to visit.